Summary:

Bacteria are able to adapt, survive and grow in the presence of antibiotics. This is well understood and many studies have looked into how bacteria evolve to single drug. But new research showed that how different adaptation history to antibiotic resistance lead to unique evolutionary dynamics of multi-drug resistance.

Researchers Yen and Papin demonstrated using populations of the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa where adaptation to one drug, followed by adaptation to a different drug, lead different final resistance level compared to the reverse order.

The experiments were done in the test tube-like setting, and further work and clinical studies will be needed to test the clinical applicability of these history-decedent effects.

In this era where new antibiotics are rare, exploiting the bacteria’s past may be a major breakthrough.

Author’s Take:

I myself is pretty concern with the rise of antibiotic resistance and tend to get pretty upset when I see people abuse antibiotics. I see it as because of their irresponsibility, the rest of humanity suffers, myself included.

Brains of adult mice restored with youthful plasticity

Summary:

The brain ages like the rest of the organs in the body, impacting its ability to learn, remember, and adapt.

Scientists from University of Utah Health reported that they are able to rejuvenate the plasticity of visual cortex of the mouse brain, increasing its ability to change in response to experience by augmenting the expression of neuronal protein, Arc.

However, further research are needed to understand precisely how manipulating Arc books plasticity. More tests will also be needed to see if Arc is involved in regulating the plasticity of other neurological functions mediated by other brain structures such as learning, memory, or repair.

Author’s Take:

I am personally is interested in this research as I myself is getting older with each passing day and I still want to maintain my mental sharpness and cognitive capabilities.

Summary:

Researchers from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State’s College of Engineering have developed a new technology called Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT). This technology allows the generation of any cell type for use in treatment of injured tissue, or restore function of aging tissues.

The technology relies on two major components. The first is a nanotechnology-based chip designed to deliver cargo to the cells. The second is the design of specific biological cargo for the cell conversation.

Mice and pigs were used in these experiments where the researchers were able to reprogram skin cells to become vascular cells in badly injured legs that lacked blood flow. Active blood vessels appeared in the injured leg within a week and the leg was saved by the second week.

According to Dr. Chandan Sen, who is the director of Ohio State’s Center for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Based Therapies and also the executive director of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Wound Center, “This is difficult to imagine, but it is achievable, successfully working about 98 percent of the time. With this technology, we can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch. This process only takes less than a second and is non-invasive, and then you’re off. The chip does not stay with you, and the reprogramming of the cell starts. Our technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance, so immune suppression is not necessary.”

As TNT does not need any laboratory-based procedures, may be implemented at the point of care, and is non-invasive, clinical trials are planned to start next year to test the technology in humans.

Author’s Take:

This is definitely very exciting. However, like all sudden new breakthrough, more research is needed. I think I am concern about the potential for mistakes during the treatment. Here is a video from OSU Wexner Medical Center: Breakthrough Device Heals Organs with a Single Touch